Matters
by GreenEmeraldGirlxoxo
Summary: AU. In Kindergarten, he made a promise to marry her. Twenty years later, he makes good on his promise. NaLu


**Pairings: **Natsu x Lucy, others implied.

**Timeline: **Alternate Universe

**Warnings: **Some fluff, but more serious romance I suppose. A quick romance I suppose…

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Fairy Tail

**Authors Note: **Enjoy!

**XXX**

"Lucy, Lucy, Lucy!" the small boy chanted the girl's name, plopping down in a red plastic chair next to her. Lucy tugged her masterpiece away, shooting him a glare. She was still mad at him for cutting her hair with scissors.

"What?" she snapped, eyeing his fingers as they drew closer to her painting. At the moment, she could care less she was crumpling her painting, smudging pink lines all over the front and back.

The pink haired boy grinned toothlessly at her, "I like your painting, here's mine!" he shoved the paper towards her, still smiling innocently. On the previously white piece of paper was a crudely painted red dragon. "I made it for you!" Lucy wrinkled her nose.

"Don't want it," she replied, setting her painting down, a frown becoming prominent on her angelic face. She ruined it! And it was all his fault! The once pretty finger painted princess now looked like a blob!

"Can I have it?" before Lucy could even respond, he was pulling on it. Her eyes flashed as she yanked it back towards her. This brief tug-of war split the paper down the center.

"NATSU!" Lucy shrieked, causing all of the other kindergarten kids to stop what they were doing. He held the larger half of the paper in his hands, shocked.

Mrs. Connell hurried over, "What happened?"

Lucy pointed at the pink haired boy, tears watering in her brown eyes, "H—he ripped my painting!" Natsu's dark eyes widened when she burst into tears.

"I—I just wanted to see it!" Natsu cried, afraid of being reprimanded. Lucy rubbed her eyes, shaking, while Mrs. Connell attempted to diffuse the situation.

"Lucy, calm down, you can have some more paper and paint something else," Mrs. Connell said, kneeling next to the two kids.

She shook her blonde head, "No! I liked that one!"

The woman shook her head, this little girl was a lost cause right now, "And Natsu, you shouldn't make girls cry."

Natsu crumpled Lucy's destroyed painting and pocketed it, "I… It's okay!" a faint grin returned to his chubby face, "I'll marry her! Then she won't cry because of me!"

"Like she'd marry an _idiot _like you," Gray called, jumping up and pointing at Natsu. There he stood in all his glory, only wearing his underpants. Mrs. Connell raced over there to get him back in clothes.

Lucy narrowed her tear filled eyes at him, "I won't ever marry you!"

Natsu, not one to be deterred by such words, leaned forward and kissed her, right on the lips! "One day!"

"NATSU!"

**XXX**

Lucy adjusted the skirt to her brand new school uniform, taking a deep breath. Elementary school had flown by, excluding all the attempts from Natsu to kiss her again.

"Luce!" Speak of the devil, Natsu slithered up and slung his arm around her shoulder, planting a kiss on her cheek. She shoved him away, wrinkling her nose.

She crossed her arms over her overly large breasts and frowned, "We're in High School now, Natsu! Stop doing that."

He grinned cheekily at her, innocently kicked a stone, "Stop doing what?" the pink haired boy ran away giggling.

Lucy's lip twitched, "Don't pretend like I didn't see that pimple, Dragneel!"

"Why do you still let him get to you, Lu-chan?" Levy asked, stepping up beside her best friend. The blunette's hair was pinned up and pushed out of her face with a head band.

She shrugged, replying angrily, "I don't know." Levy simply nodded along.

Erza, the two girls' other best friend strolled up, "Morning!" Her bright red hair flowed down her back, scarlet red.

They waved and entered the school. It was cramped, smelled like B.O and felt stuffy. Things over the summer clearly hadn't changed much as Gray had his shirt off and was standing in the corner, flirting with girls. A pretty blue haired girl had pretty much attached herself to his side, not that he appeared to mind.

In fact, even Natsu had his own ensemble of girls, including a petite, silver haired girl. He stood in the center of girls, scratching the back of his head, a cute smile on his face.

A weird feeling bubbled in Lucy's gut. Why was he with them…? When she turned to talk to Levy, or even Erza, both of them were gone. Erza was off with a boy who was evidently a senior with startling blue hair and a red tattoo on his face. Levy had gone with another boy with multiple piercings and long black hair. Were these the two boys they met over the summer?

Natsu spotted Lucy immediately, but instead of scuttling over to her like he usually did, he only sent her a brief nod of acknowledgement. Her stomach dropped and her heart clenched.

She stomped off, determined to not even care. Although, this proved more and more difficult when half way through sophomore year, he started to date the silver haired girl from before.

Naturally, this didn't bother Lucy in the slightest. He dated so many girls these past years, she'd lost count of how many had their hearts broken.

But for some damned reason, he stayed with that girl all the way till the near end of _senior _year!

"Luce, how are you?" The one and only Natsu Dragneel appeared, sitting down next to her. He leaned against the wall, casually propping his elbow on his knee, smiling at her.

For a moment, Lucy just ignored him. He was giving her _that _smile, the one he used on every bimbo he went out.

"Shouldn't you be with _your girlfriend_?" she spat, her brown eyes flickering.

Natsu raised his eye brow, his grin subtly shifted to a smirk, "Why does it matter?" Lucy snarled. He held up his hands defensively, "No, we broke up. She wanted to get married and I didn't."

"I thought you liked her," Lucy responded softly.

The pinkette scoffed, "No. There's no one I could like more than you and I think she got that."

Offended, Lucy stood up, wiping imaginary dust off her ass, "If you liked me so much, why the hell did you go out with so many other girls?"

"Jealous, Luce?" he said mockingly. "You don't want me, why should it matter?"

She opened her mouth with some fancy retort, and yet, nothing came out. He got up, towering above her.

"I made a promise, Luce, and I intend to uphold it." He kissed her and walked away without looking back.

Lucy touched her lips, stunned. _That bastard. He got me to fall in love with him…_

**XXX**

It's been years since Lucy had last seen Natsu. They each had gone their separate ways for college and university. Not once did she want to see him. That actually wasn't true. There wasn't a day that went by that Lucy didn't think about Natsu.

The busty blonde swivelled in her office chair, chewing on her French manicured thumb nail. Somehow in the years they'd gone to school together, Natsu had gotten her to fall in love with him. Maybe it was the time in fourth grade when he saved her from falling into a lake… no, she had ended up punching him for that because he touched her breasts.

Perhaps it was the time when he pulled that creepy kid named Dan off her in sixth grade and beat the crap out of him. Definitely not, despite helping her, he ended up accidentally elbowing her in the face.

Or maybe the time in eighth grade when Erza forced them to play spin the bottle. Natsu refused to let himself—or Lucy for that matter—kiss anyone other than each other. Nope. He stuck his hand up her skirt, which he was reminded about for weeks from the black eye he suffered. Product of Lucy's knee jerk.

"I'm sorry to interrupt Lucy-sama, but you have a guest," Aries, the soft-spoken woman said, her voice crackling to life on the intercom. Aries had a tendency to apologise for every little thing, which made Lucy sometimes reconsider her secretary status. Customer service would probably better benefit this woman.

"Send them in," Lucy replied, pushing the red button. She released it and leaned back in her chair, turning it around to face the large, wall length window. A few months ago, her father unfortunately suffered from a stroke, and died not too long ago. Suddenly, Lucy was shoved into a CEO Job position she didn't want and took over her father's business.

Once again, Lucy's thoughts strayed to Natsu. He may have been a complete moron most of the time, he may have said and done all the wrong things, but _he was Natsu_. There most likely wasn't a specific moment for Lucy to pinpoint when she fell in love with him. It just happened. Actually… it was in…

"Long time no see, Miss Big Shot CEO." It couldn't have been…

Lucy crossed legs and twisted the chair around. Natsu stood there, slouching, his hands deep in the pockets of his black jeans. His spiked pink hair was everywhere, two crossed red and black barrettes held some of his bangs up. On top of a red shirt was a black leather jacket. Around his waist was a white muffler accompanied by numerous chains. Natsu Dragneel, the rock star was gracing her with his presence.

"You're looking well, Natsu," Lucy said shortly, remaining seated. She was unsure of why he was here, why he chose to appear now.

Slinking forward, he leaned against the edge of her desk, tapping the closed lid of her laptop. "How have you been?" Natsu asked, sincere. His dark eyes were warm, and the soft smile on his lips showed just how genuine he was.

She sighed, "Okay. It doesn't really get easier, does it?" He shook his head. Up close, Lucy noticed he was wearing eye liner.

Natsu sat on her desk top, crossing his arms. He had at least two rings on each finger. "No, it doesn't." That's right. Before Lucy had even met Natsu in kindergarten—when that bastards first interaction with her was chopping off her golden locks—his mother died of an illness. Only his father remained, and he left the country once Natsu turned eighteen.

"Anyways, let's cut to the chase, Natsu. Why are you here?" she inquired, folding her hands over top of her knee. The grey fabric of her skirt was tight against her thighs, as her nylons stretched. A few of her buttons on her cuffed white blouse were undone.

The rock star didn't say anything for a while, removing a beat up brown wallet from his pocket. Lucy leaned forward, curious.

Out from his wallet, he pulled the horrible finger painting Lucy had done in kindergarten. He tossed it down in front of her and twiddled his thumbs. Lucy found it mildly amusing his nails were painted black.

The princess's arm was ripped off, the paint impossibly smeared and crumpled. In the corners of the paper, small hearts were drawn.

"You still have this?" Lucy muttered, setting it down, going to open her drawer.

"Yup. How could I possibly forget that day? It was the day I made a promise," Natsu said, cracking his neck. A pretty impressive memory, considering the promise was made twenty years ago.

Fondly, Lucy lifted the framed picture from the drawer and handed it to him. His eyes widened in surprise, chuckling.

"I thought you didn't want it?" he teased, his thumb running across the surface of the glass, smudging it. The dragon still looked as crude as it had on that day twenty years ago. He set it down next to Lucy's painting.

Lucy rolled her eyes, "I changed my mind." On the inside, Lucy was squirming with curiosity. Was he actually going to keep his promise?

"Let's elope."

What…? Lucy stood up abruptly, sending the chair spinning back into the glass. She threw her hands down on her desk, her lips parting uncertainly.

"Are you serious right now?" she demanded, poking him in the chest.

Natsu stared at her bewildered, "Of course I'm serious." Out of his other pocket he pulled out a velvet box. "I'm tired of your rejections Luce. So I'm asking you if you want to elope. I'll make you happy, I promise. But if you reject me again, I promise I'll leave you alone."

Lucy took the box from his hand, opening it. It was a simple white gold ring with a chocolate diamond in the center. Lucy loved that about him. That he knew her so well. Natsu was probably far richer than she was and he got her a small ring because that's what she would have wanted.

"Yes, I'll elope with you," she told him, smiling. A grin split across Natsu's face. She took the ring from the box and slid it on her finger. She wasn't going to question how he knew her ring size.

"Excellent. I've cancelled the rest of your schedule's today—you would not believe how many free concert tickets I had to give out for that—and I have my jet ready to go. I hope you have your passport, we're going to Vegas." Natsu leaned across the desk and kissed her. His hot lips made Lucy's stomach flip, his tongue slid into her mouth, tasting her.

Lucy broke the kiss, flushed and said, "We're going now?!"

"Well duh. That's what happens what you elope. You just go with it," Natsu answered, kissing her again. "Besides, what matters is, is that I love you and you love me. So let's not waste any more time and get married."

"You're an idiot."

"I'm _your _idiot. Let's go, I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you."

**Well then… I intentionally changed the maturity of the writing as I went, I'm just wondering if anyone but me noticed lol. Anyways, clearly Natsu was a little OOC, but first of all, he's still an idiot, and second of all, it's about damn time he grew up. I hope you enjoyed! **

**~Emerald~**

**PS~ While writing this, I was wondering, would anyone want to see a sequel about their married life? Lucy's a CEO and Natsu's a rock star, I wonder how interesting their marriage would be haha. **


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